He manufactured a crisis in LA so he could engineer a disaster in Washington DC…
Okay, so, here’s the thing. Obviously, Donny is manufacturing a crisis in LA. Maybe he’s doing it to distract Americans – and MAGA, too – from Elon’s claim that 47 is in the Epstein files, information 47, himself, has inadvertently confirmed as “old news.” (But, not old enough, right?) Maybe he’s doing it to distract from his Big Barfy Bill that promises to do so much damage to so many Americans – and MAGA, too – just to comfort the comfortable.

Then again, maybe this is just his opportunity to begin introducing more authoritarian measures that lead to his complete control. I like choice D – all of the above. Clearly, MAGA doesn’t care about the Epstein files. MAGA is SO enthralled by him, they’d hold the poor girl down for him. They likely don’t know the details of the Big Bill being pushed through Congress by America-hating Republicans. Hell, even GOP Congress critters didn’t read it, why would the rank and file?

MAGA has been conditioned for some time to think violence against protestors, those protesting something they disagree with, anyway, is the right choice, the best choice. (They all supported that puke, Cliven Bundy, who thought he should be allowed to graze his cattle on government land for free.) So, right now, MAGA is probably quite happy. I guess they haven’t thought it through. They don’t seem to realize that ANY protests will be met with violence.

So as a quick recap, American citizens came out to protest (and probably impede) ICE raids against people decidedly NOT dangerous criminals. ICE thought force would be the best choice. That IS, after all, the first action of a small mind. The LA police were called out to provide crowd control. That should have been it. ICE eventually stands down or the protestors tire out and go home. We’ve seen protests before. That’s the way they play out.

As a kind of interesting sidebar, conservatives think (because it’s what MAGA media is telling them) that ICE was going into a dangerous, Tren de Aragua safe-house to bust some really bad dudes. They think lefties are trying to protect violent criminals. They are NOT being told it was a ‘Home Depot.’ I’ve never been fearful of running into Tren de Aragua working in a Home Depot in my life. Would they shank me or just direct me to the plungers, thank you very much?

By the way, 47 is lying about the whole thing, so one more on the pile is no big deal, right? He’s letting his believers think that all of LA is burning, just one big battleground where “libtards” are protecting the very worst of the worst and he has no choice but to face that with greater force. The entire protest is actually confined to a couple of streets in downtown LA. It’s not even all of downtown LA.

Anyway, Donny seized the opportunity to escalate events by calling out National Guard troops. THEN, he made it even worse by calling in the Marines. Now, this is 47, so you KNOW the decision is stupid. He called out 2,000 National Guard troops. 315 or so of them have been deployed. The others are milling about with nothing to do. So he called out 2,000 more. Where the hell is DOGE when you need them? Talk about fraud, waste, and abuse.

We’ve seen this movie before. In 1970, students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Ohio were attacked by National Guard troops, killing four of the protestors and wounding nine others, and highlighting how stupid it is to ask people trained to kill to act as police, instead. Neil Young wrote a song about it called, ‘Ohio.’ “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming…”

Now everybody is wondering how the military is going to react. The actions of ALL military members are governed by a set of standards called the Uniform Code of Military Justice – the UCMJ. Weirdly, military members are MORE subject to the UCMJ than they are the US Constitution. That is, one surrenders some of their Constitutional rights when one signs on the dotted line. The military can, legally, tell you what you can and cannot read, for example. Did you know that? They surrender some of their constitutional rights while potentially risking their lives to protect yours.

The UCMJ requires military members to reject illegal orders. An illegal order is one that violates the Constitution or would be a crime in other terms. An officer can’t legally order a soldier to rob a bank, for example. By definition, our military is supposed to be apolitical and fight our nation’s enemies, not her own citizens. We have one law, the Posse Comitatus Act, that prevents American soldiers from acting in police capacities in the US. But we have another, the Insurrection Act, that gives the President (or, in this case, 47) broad authority to use the military in the US.

In my mind, the soldiers deploying is no big deal. It’s obviously legal for a commander to tell his troops where to stand. But when that commander tells his troops to open fire on American citizens? That will be a moment for the military member, a very risky moment. Two conflicting laws, ‘You absolutely can NOT’ vs ‘You have to.’ How does one decide? I, for one, would not fire on Americans, most especially Americans protesting criminal activity on the part of the government. I don’t want to be the focus of a new Neil Young song. “Tin soldiers and Trump is coming…” But I might face Court-Martial for that decision.

It’s possible the troops are hand-picked and loyal only to Donny and not the Constitution. Those guys will open fire. I wish I could say I was surprised by the events as they’re playing out, but I’m not. I’ve expected Donny to manufacture some crisis in order to try to clamp down and he seems to have found the crisis he likes. All he had to do was harass innocent, law-abiding, contributing human beings for a short while.

This fight is going to take up a lot of ink in the press for a short time, and it should. But please. Let us NOT forget 47 is working to distract us from the fact that Musk says he’s in the Epstein files, nor should we allow ourselves to be distracted from this evil Big Bill that promises to do so much harm to so many, just so the richest rich people can be a little more comfortable. We’re multi-tasking now, people…